Chapter 821: Chapter 821: The Charmony Festival
Penacony.
After maxing out Topaz and Constance’s affection at the Herta Space Station, Nolan went to several "Stellaron-contaminated zones" to grind Adventure EXP.
He had only cleared a few of those areas and gathered enough EXP to raise his level by about one when he received a telepathic message from Himeko. She informed him that Penacony’s "Charmony Festival" was about to begin, and that she needed his help with something.
So Nolan made his way here once again.
Speaking of which, according to Constance, on the day he attacked the "Everflame Mansion," the "Grand Duke of Inferno" had been gathering his forces, preparing to set out and raid Penacony.
It had to be said, that was truly bold. After all, this was the grandest ceremony in the entire galaxy, with countless powerful figures attending.
The "Grand Duke of Inferno" wasn’t an Emanator, so he couldn’t just run rampant across the galaxy without restraint.
Not dwelling further on that minor matter, Nolan turned his attention to Penacony as a whole. According to Himeko, there had been a small disturbance here not long ago.
Some followers of the fallen Aeon of "Order," Taiyi, had attempted to stir up trouble. In the end, however, they were easily dealt with by the Astral Express crew.
After all, with senior Nameless like Mikhail having been revived by him, and with Stelle, Himeko, and March 7th all strengthened by numerous affection-based abilities, they already stood in an invincible position.
Not to mention, if things really got out of hand, they could always call him.
It was precisely because these issues had been resolved that the "Charmony Festival" could proceed smoothly, without any of the attending guests noticing what had happened.
Scanning across all of Penacony, Nolan found that things had largely settled down, though there were still a few troublemakers causing mischief.
The matter Himeko had asked him to handle was related to this.
A "Masked Fool" named Sparkle had planted numerous bomb-like dolls throughout Penacony, giving the Astral Express crew a time limit to find them all. Otherwise, she claimed she would blow the entire planet sky-high.
Nolan quickly located those bomb dolls and realized they were nothing more than fireworks, completely incapable of destroying Penacony.
Even so, making such a joke was still rather malicious. As expected of a follower of the "God of Elation."
He swiftly locked onto Sparkle’s location and captured her. Seeing that she was quite pretty and cute, and that she possessed golden-tier affection potential, he used a Command Spell to control her.
He planned to spend a few days attending the festival while gradually maxing out her affection.
During the festival, Nolan encountered a powerful individual comparable to an Emanator. Her appearance was unexpectedly similar to Mei’s, clearly a situation akin to Bronya’s.
She called herself "Acheron," and her real name was indeed similar to Mei’s: Raiden Bosenmei.
Nolan met her aboard the Astral Express. Stelle and the others seemed to have become friends with Acheron. Besides her, there was also a Memokeeper named Black Swan.
She appeared to be very interested in the memories of the Astral Express crew, including Nolan himself.
Naturally, Nolan had no interest in sharing his memories with others, but he didn’t act overly resistant either, mainly because he wanted to build Black Swan’s affection.
According to his affection skill observation, she, like Acheron and Sparkle, also possessed golden-tier affection potential.
Dealing with Sparkle was simple. Since that troublesome girl was already under his control, raising her affection would be easy. Keeping her by his side for a few days would suffice. As for Acheron, he had a method as well.
She was a "Self-Annihilator," a title given to certain Pathstriders of the Path of Nihility. The reason for this name was that, under the influence of Nihility, they would gradually lose their memories—and eventually fall completely into Nihility.
For Nolan, however, this was just a minor issue. "Divine Maiden’s Purity" could resolve Acheron’s condition.
So, using that as a reason, he could claim that he was able to treat her "self-annihilation" condition. By using "Divine Maiden’s Purity" on her a few more times and spending more time by her side, he could gradually max out her affection.
As for Black Swan, since he couldn’t possibly hand over his memories to her, he came up with another approach.
That was to take her to the "Sea of Quanta." If she had never been there before, then the memories of people from such an unexplored place would undoubtedly be of great interest to her.
Entering and exiting the Sea of Quanta required Nolan, so he could accompany her while she gathered memories there. In this way, he could slowly build up her affection.
During the festival, Nolan also got to know the one hosting the ceremony, the most famous superstar in the entire galaxy, Robin.
Because the Astral Express crew had helped Penacony a great deal, she came to personally thank them. Naturally, Nolan became acquainted with her as well.
This galactic superstar was extremely beautiful and also possessed golden-tier affection potential. Of course, Nolan had the intention of raising her affection.
However, for the time being, he had no real connection with her, so there was no reasonable way to stay by her side long enough to build it up.
Thus, while continuing to raise Acheron, Sparkle, and Black Swan’s affection, he also considered ways to spend more time with Robin.
After about a month, Nolan successfully maxed out the affection of Acheron, Sparkle, and Black Swan, obtaining their respective affection skills.
[Color of Nihility: Use spiritual power to apply the "Color of Nihility" onto a target. Any target marked in this way will be reduced to nothingness. The upper limit is the sum of both parties’ levels.]
Acheron’s affection skill was relatively straightforward, allowing Nolan to freely erase any target whose level was below the combined level of himself and Acheron.
Unless the target possessed some kind of substitute or damage-avoidance ability, nothing could escape his erasure.
Sparkle’s affection skill was also very much in line with her nature:
[Supreme Dream of Elation: Upon activation, all life within a range equal to the sum of both parties’ levels in light-years will fall into an absolute dream of joy. This skill is not considered a negative effect, cannot be resisted, and has no duration limit.]
Equally simple and direct, it was a large-scale, permanent control ability that was essentially guaranteed to hit. However, it wasn’t without countermeasures. Anyone with an exceptionally strong will could awaken from the dream.
Finally, Black Swan’s affection skill was quite interesting as well:
[Black Swan’s Memoir of Wandering Memories: Allows the capture of all forms of information, and enables free traversal and modification within any information, including the memories of living beings. The target limit is the sum of both parties’ levels.]
Traveling through information and freely altering it felt even more powerful than a Fictionologist.
After maxing out the affection of these girls, Nolan had already come up with a plan for getting closer to Robin. From what he knew, as a singer renowned across the galaxy, she frequently traveled to various planets to hold concerts.
Nolan could simply invite her to perform a concert. As the organizer, it would be perfectly natural for him to discuss the arrangements with her.
Then, he could find ways to personally accompany her for promotional shoots and similar activities. This would allow them to spend extended time together, making it easy to raise her affection.
Once a foundation of affection was established, he could invite her out on dates.
For example, going to watch movies or have meals together. Just sitting together for one or two hours at a time, repeating it a few times, and Robin’s affection for him would be nearly maxed out.
(End of Chapter)
